The Congress renewed its no-holds-barred attack on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Report on the 2G spectrum scam

NEW DELHI: On Friday Jayanthi Natarajan Congress party spokesperson not only alleged that the CAG had deliberately leaked the report several weeks before it was officially tabled, but said that he was applying different yardsticks for the Opposition and the Congress.

He said, “The CAG did not object when Bharatiya Janata Party leaders including L.K. Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley spoke on the report,” she said, adding, “There cannot be one standard for those who accept it and one for those who criticise it.”

In a press release on January 12, the CAG had referred to Rules of Business, which, it said, prohibited any MP from making comments when a matter was being looked into by a parliamentary committee. Ms. Natarajan said she was surprised and distressed by the release because there was no such rule — she had meticulously pored through the various parliamentary rules as well as rulings given by the Speaker, but had not found the Rule 1.12 referred to by the CAG, she said.

Natarajan said, stressingly, “To suggest that MPs cannot speak is a strong suggestion from a constitutional authority.” She also accused the CAG of leaking details of the report, which had begun to appear in newspapers from October 19, while the report was tabled in Parliament on November 16 last year. “How was it leaked? How did the details come into the public domain?” she asked.

“Making public comments on the matter which is being considered by a Parliamentary Committee is highly improper and may even amount to contempt of the House,” the CAG’s statement had said.

Natarajan’s attack was on the CAG, while in sync with that of her fellow spokesperson Manish Tiwari, who had trashed the CAG report a few days ago, came a day after another party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi had sought to tone down the party’s criticism of the CAG.